Awareness

Awareness, which is often neglected within the fundamental skills categorisation includes the child’s understanding of space, and depth of space within the confines of the sport or activity area. The ability to be aware of surroundings and available space is a very valuable skill. The best players understand where the space on the pitch is for passing, kicking, and running and if they exploit that space they and their team will achieve an advantage. By coaching children to be aware of the space available during a activity coaches are laying the ground work for much more sport-specific skills and performance. Some examples of simple awareness activities that can be done with players are shown below.

Have a square marked out with cones and line children up on each of the 4 sides of the square, when the coach shout go the players have to run to the opposite side of the square, they will have to evade the other players and make sure they are looking up for a path through the drill.

The coach has a square marked out and two players stand in the square and are ”it”, the other players have to run through the square without getting tagged , the players will have to be aware of space and the movement of other players and the defenders to pass through untagged.